STAT News presentation at the Digiday Publishing Summit - September 24-26, 2018. By: Angus Macaulay, CRO

1. How to make
subscriptions work
STAT Case Study
Digiday Publishing Summit 2018

3. Hardest simplest thing

4. BENEFIT #1

5. BENEFIT #2

6. Timeline
• November 2015
• Free site, ad supported
• December 2016
• STAT Plus launched
• January 2018
• Tighten edit focus

7. Strategic Considerations
• VIBRANT market?
• UNMET reader need?
• STAFFED to solve that?
• Have we built enough TRUST
& REPUTATION to start
charging?
• LOYAL readers?

8. Paywall Strategy
LOYALTY AS INDICATOR
• Niche: Hard paywall
• Flagship: Meter
• Commodity: Advertising
• Thrash: Low value
OTHER
• Membership, reports, in-app
Source: CMI

9. Target Audience
• Who is a subscriber
• How many may walk away
• STAT
• 50% - 66% professional
• Biotech/Pharma/Prof
Svs/Finance/Academia/Polic
y
• 36% willing to pay

10. Target Audience
WHO
• Define by sector
• Define by job title, dept
• Real examples in database
NEED
• Company/job goals
• Challenges
• What do they need to “win”
• Fear

11. Addressable Market
Each Segment
• How many companies/Orgs
• Who are they, specifically
Individuals
• Dept of Labor Data
• Linkedin
Market Potential
• Low, Med, High Penetration

12. Product Features
• Willing to lose advertising for a
story
• Trusted, respected journalists
• Exclusive, original content
• “Tell me why it matters”
• Event/conference coverage
• Online events
• Live events

13. Pricing Strategy
Where else are they seeing paywalls
(general news)
• NYT: $195 - $325
• WSJ: $348
Direct Competitors
• NEJM: $139
• Timmerman Report: $149
• GenomeWeb: $380
• FDA News: $1,000+
• BioCentury: $5,000+

14. Execution
AWARENESS TO ATTRACT
• Search, Social, STAT, Email
CAPTURE EMAIL ADDRESS
• Webinars, ebooks, pop-up
• Social follow, email sign-up
ENGAGE AND NURTURE
• Free newsletters, Free content
CONVERT
• UX/hit paywall; compelling content

15. Retention: Funnel to
Flywheel
• EASIER TO KEEP than win
new
• Customers become
PROMOTERS
• HOW MANY RESOURCES are
dedicated to retention - beyond
just producing content?
• WHO’S AT RISK of canceling
• Engagement strategy from Day
1
Source: Hubspot

16. 2019
• Corporate Subs/Licenses
• Upsell product
• Aggressive retention strategy
• Events
• Enhance our tech stack:
Marketing automation

17. Angus Macaulay
@angusmacaulay
Thank you